The bird in the poem serves a couple of functions, as far as I can tell. First, he calls attention to the changing of the seasons, with lines like the bird signaling “early petal-fall is past,” and thus calls attention to the passage of time. Therefore, one can say that the bird also represents death, perhaps man’s return to nature, or the relatively ephemeral nature of man’s life compared to the natural world. Second, the bird also calls attention to the truth of the natural world, how there is decay everywhere, with lines like “He says the highway dust is over all.” In that sense, he almost serves the same function as a poet would. Perhaps the bird and the poet are one and the same. Frost may be saying that, while signs of the passage of time may exist all around us, it takes someone with a keen eye to point it out, or someone with skill with words to make it noticeable. The bird’s singing is thus like poet’s words. They both complement and underscore the world all around them, as well as contribute their own viewpoint of the world.
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I liked the way you compared the bird as a sage of truth, representing a reality we all to face: death. The bird, as you described, is very blunt in describing the world through its own lens. A bird is probably not clouded by thoughts like greed that we humans sometimes have. So maybe this is Frost’s commentary on society.